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Tuesday, June 6, 2017

This is no Win for the VAAD

Still to early to go through the numbers and see how the districts voted. The Seniors voted strong for the incumbents. As For The frum Vote it was a low turn out and unfortunately no one could get backing by any Rav in a town with over 150 Rabbonim. if they would have all backed one candidate they would have a chance.For the Vaad to declare victory would be a slap in the face to the thousands of Lakewood residents who have been ignored and disenfranchised. There are many who dont have a voice and the powerful leadership is not connected to them. The bnei Hayeshiva are shortchanged. If only the Vaad would have put the same kochos and passion to help as it did in this last "panic week" to win and remain in power maybe things would be different. The VAAD attitude of undermining the plight of so many Lakewood taxpayers who sit and traffic, who struggle to pay high taxes, can not go on. Controlling the media, naming residents as balei machlokes just to remain in power, is weakness its not leadership. Telling people "we were here first"or "no one asked you to move here" etc. is just insulting. Regardless, the way it is can not go on. The grassroots campaign is only taking off. Thanks to all the courageous candidates who listened to the people.

What's up with the seniors? They hate the congestion and overbuilding. But they could never get themselves to vote for a guy with a Jewish name. OK have it your way. Vote in the guys who are killing your quality of life. Now go down to city hall and yell at the stooges up there....whatever

Take out the seniors from the equation and break down the numbers in the frum community. It's not quite a rejection.... Than factor in the amount of temimusdik people that believe the Vaad's proclamation that they are working to fix the traffic problem etc... Many of these same people complain all the time about the building and traffic issues, they just naively believe the Vaad cares about their issues...It wouldn't bother me so much if the Vaad and .... were forthright and stated what their real priorities are, If the majority of lakewood chooses to back them with that knowledge than that their choice. The problem is that they are mislead....

Maybe the high road will yield better results. Try that next time. This time didn't make the new candidates look good to serious people who would embrace a better presentation. Don't give up the fight for change , but start with a change in the tactics.

Someone has been fidgeting too much with his spinner. The title of this post, This is No Win for the Vaad, is just spin. The Vaad doesn't have to declare victory. The numbers speak for themselves. The Vaad won. What a disappointment!Well there's always next year! Let's get to work!And look at the bright side. At least Travis won't be walking in the footsteps of the developers who are ruining the beauty of Lakewood and he won't be building a bridge over our beautiful lake

10% of registered voters that are scared to vote against the rosh yeshiva and "achdus" is not considered overwhelming support.No freedom of press, hundreds of articles saying why its an aveira to vote for newcomers, ads plastered everywhere funded by endless construction money, and etc. Winning a political race involves more than just finding favor in people's eyes, you need a good winning strategy. And when your strategy includes 100% of the press 100% of the time, and manipulating Roshei Yeshiva to further your agenda, you can get places.

The headline is unfortunately inherently false. The Vaad doesn't really care if their candidates won because of the seniors. As long as they can keep the masses at bay by threatening them with the "going against Daas Torah" card, that's enough for them. Besides for the standard burnt out voters who don't vote, there were thousands of people who just stayed home because they couldn't be brought to go against "Daas Torah". Until a halachic authority agrees to back a particular candidate, we are all wasting our time. Frum people respect Rabannim by hook or by crook, and that's why the Vaad keeps on winning whether we like it or not.

So the entire yeshiva is asked to go against the Daas Torah of Rav Shteinman and Rav Chaim Kanievsky and no one has a problem with that but when it comes to protect some money all of a sudden the same people are screaming Daas Torah!

That is the biggest Chutzpah to scare the town with the Daas Torah card and chas veshalo anyone vote against the vaad.

More so, they know the vaad is corrupt, they know how many hours a day the youngeleit are sitting in traffic but it means asach gelt so they sign a letter but then at the same time we can ignore the gedolim in Eretz Yisrael.

From the little research I did, it is a big mistake to blame this loss on the seniors. According to my calculations, there were maybe about 500 voters from the senior community who voted. Most of the votes came from the frum oilam and they unfortunately went overwhelmingly for the Vaad. So to all those trying to make themselves feel better by blaming the seniors for these results, wake up and smell the coffee.

Aside for Westgate, and a few areas right around Yeshiva, the incumbents won most heavily in the senior areas.

Considering that they aren't subject to VAAD propaganda, or letters from the Rosh Yeshiva, and are unanimously against development, you would have thought they would have heavily favored the new candidates.

The vote of people who are making money of everyone's misery should not be discounted either. their are many who work in construction and real estate. They likely had a very high turnout rate, since their livelihood depends on it

It is sad that we live in a town where we need to fight for our right to have a better quality of life, against an organization that supposedly was established to help us have just that. I feel bad for the people that felt that these candidates would not have been a better alternative to the corrupt members of our committee. What irks me most is knowing that Coles and Delia are going to sleep tonight thinking that they fooled us all. But guess what? We still have FAA. We still have Tbl and hefkervelt. They will be watching them like hawks. I watched the town deteriorate faster over the last seven years as the VAAD influence became more questioned. It was almost as if they wanted to get in their last licks of corruption. Now we have so many new projects that will make people shake their heads in disbelief. First one up will be the new Capitol apartment building on route 9. When people pass by that 5 story monstrosity so close to the road, they will wonder how that ever got approved. After succos the town will be a daily snarl of cars in all areas of as new families move into new construction. All I can say is , get some good books on tape for the car, prepare for your home value to drop as your taxes go higher, and watch businesses close as people find it impossible to go shopping in this mess.And thank you Sharaby GrumanTravis and HirschFor putting yourselves out there to help our town. We all appreciate your efforts very much

Maybe you didn't notice. This was not my election. There were 4 independent people running . Each had their own ideas and ways of running their campaign. All i did was make my recommendation of which to vote for. Its a shame that today there will be no change. While I was hopeful that one would at least win, I was not at all shocked by the outcome. I did not get involved in politics because I am miserable. I got involved because I know that there is so much good we can do, and we are being held back. As the letter I was told to sign said. "I will do nothing for the klal without the permission of the roshei hayeshiva". So now I have a proposition to make . Since the VAAD cares so much about doing for the klal that they spent tens of thousands of dollars on this campaign (I paid for a single ad). Why dont they start doing some real work for the klal. Tennis anyone?

This is a victory for Lakewood. Too mangy people use the dissatisfaction in town for their own agendas. Until a serious candidate, with some kind of successful career behind him/her and a cleaner background than messiros etc., with a coherent plan that benefits the tzibbur, stands for election, we will continue with this corruption.

The political system works. If someone wants to win, they must build coalitions, set up a grassroots movement that actually hears what people are saying. Relying on comments on blogs gets you nowhere. The existence of a political apparatus ensures that they cannot get voted in and then unilaterally decide to masser on this guy, close down someone else and put roadblocks in front of a third without a coherent cohesive plan.

"We were here first"!?Corruption is corruptionand Nepotism, and strong arming mafia tacticsAnd , most of the Developers are filthy carpetbaggers My father grew up in town in the '50sHe taught one of the VAAD members how to drive

The world expects more from our townThe enemy is less the VAAD , than than 1)the Get Rich of Our Backs Developers 2)Conniving attitudes in Mosdos,in neighborhoods,etc.3)their mouthpieces who claim to be impartial & for everyone,but.. i.e.The Scoop

I agree with those who say we have to change tactics. Just as it's stupid to vote the same people in and expect different results, it's stupid for us to use the same tactics and expect different results. First off we in no way took the high road. Face it. We used alot of name calling, etc. which turns people off and causes them to take us less seriously. Also, more experienced, serious candidates would help. It sounds nice to have a candidate coming in from left field, but people also want stability along with change.

The system is set up that no serious candidate can ever run. No Rav has the guts to stand up to the vaad. and the cycle will continue anyone voting against the big money machine will be deemed crazy anti yeshiva unstable baal machlokes etc..

Its more like everyone is lazy. I shlepped my kids with me early in the morning to vote. The issue is that people like to talk a lot and complain but they can't be bothered to find the time to do a small thing like go out and vote so that there will be change. I bet if they offered a free coupon for $5.00 off your next purchase somewhere everyone would go running. That, people have time to shlep out for. ..